THE AUTOEXTREMIST

June 23, 2010

Das Beste oder nichts.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

(Posted 6/22, 2:30PM) Detroit.  It has been a good fifteen years since Mercedes-Benz walked away from one of the greatest advertising themes in automotive marketing history – “Engineered like no other car in the world” – way back when Mercedes was still Mercedes-Benz, the no-nonsense car company whose reputation was forged with a mind-numbing adherence to engineering for engineering’s sake.

Back then Mercedes truly marched to a different drummer. Led by a talented squadron of engineers who not only dictated the product cadence for the company but who determined the “who-what-when-where and why” of each and every vehicle they made, Mercedes did things their way. Boy, did they ever. And only when the engineers were satisfied did the marketing types get handed the vehicles to sell, but only then.

That the Mercedes “way” redefined the term “engineering overkill” with each new model launched into this market goes without saying, and everyone from the hard-core enthusiast-types to the casual motorists who just had to have the very latest and the very best flocked to the brand in droves.

And the American consumer public in particular bought into the Mercedes mystique hook, line and sinker. They paid no attention to the fact that Mercedes was like the German version of General Motors in its home country - building everything from taxi cabs to buses and heavy trucks - because over here the “Engineered like no other…” theme and carefully honed image resonated deeply, and owning and driving a Mercedes meant enjoying the absolute best of the best, even if they didn’t really understand the whys and the wherefores of it all.

And even though BMW - its perennial pesky German competitor - was nipping at its heels back then, and Lexus was just beginning to make its inroads into this market, Mercedes was still Mercedes-Benz, in attitude, in execution and in its unwavering commitment to the last technical detail.

But then things got weird.

As a new generation of Mercedes executives came to the fore – smugly resolute with their freshly-minted MBAs and positively giddy in their cost-containment skills - they set about to drag Mercedes-Benz kicking and screaming into The Future - a brave new world where the New Automotive Order was being dictated by global economies of scale and profitability – a world where the Toyota-orchestrated mantra of unyielding quality was becoming legend.

It was at this very point in time that Mercedes walked away from its raison d’etre and started to cut costs by eliminating the engineering overkill under the skin – the kind of “stuff” that the customers wouldn’t see, understand or know about anyway, (according to them) – and started down the primrose path of mediocrity.

This situation was compounded by the fact that the company was taking its corporate eye off of the ball, chasing partnerships and associations in other industries like aerospace, while basically forgetting what their core business was and what had brought them this far to begin with.

That was all bad enough, but then a phalanx of misguided marketing types started to tinker with the Mercedes formula as expressed in the majestic ad theme of “Engineered like no other…” There was much hand-wringing about the fact that Mercedes had become too lofty, too intransigent, too mired in its hoary persona to compete in the Brave New Automotive World, and that had to change if the company was going to survive.

The Answer, at least in the mindset of the B-School-corroded marketing minions in Germany? Mercedes needed to become more down to earth, more real, and most important, more approachable.

The result? “Engineered like no other car in the world” was quickly jettisoned. The phrase that had captured the company’s take-no-prisoners attitude when it came to its engineering approach and that came to symbolize the Mercedes-Benz “way” was relegated to the trash bin, a remnant of a bygone era that had somehow become obsolete, at least in the eyes of the Mercedes marketers.

And right then and there the die was cast. Mercedes-Benz, that proud and yes, at times wildly arrogant car company, was walking away from a legacy of a century of engineering superiority and a glorious heritage intertwined with the fundamental development of the automobile - one that conjured up images of unrelenting excellence for consumers both here and around the world – and was now charting a course to become just another car company.

More cost-efficient, yes, but dumbed-down to the lowest common denominator. Instead of designing, engineering and building the very best cars they knew how to build, it became a game of “what can we do to make it look like a Mercedes and feel like a Mercedes but with drastically reduced costs.”

The rest of the story?

While Jurgen Schrempp, the guy who will surely go down in automotive history as one of the most egomaniacally-driven and woefully misguided CEOs of all time, was leading the parent Daimler astray with a series of dim-witted moves - including “The Marriage of Equals” with the old Chrysler – that damn near doomed the company to oblivion, Mercedes-Benz was floundering terribly.

Plagued by quality issues and crippled by forays into segments they had no business plying in, Mercedes quickly lost its mojo while it flailed about trying to recapture the magic, except there was barely anyone left who actually understood what that magic was all about to begin with. Meanwhile, its competitors ramped things up - particularly Audi, which has swiped the old Mercedes reputation for unyielding engineering excellence right out from under it - leaving Mercedes executives to wonder what hit them.

Was it coincidence that when Mercedes-Benz walked away from “Engineered like no other car in the world” it saw its fortunes turn downward? In a word, no. Because it wasn’t just an advertising theme by then but rather it had become the rallying cry for the entire company. And if that phrase wasn’t important enough to maintain, then maybe the attitude it took to build great cars wasn’t either.

The reality about all of this is that Mercedes has been attempting to get back to where they once belonged ever since. I don’t know if it was the built-in hubris and arrogance that come with the territory of being a “German automotive marketing executive,” or just an adamant refusal to believe that they collectively had royally screwed things up for going on 20 years, but Mercedes-Benz wouldn’t bring back “Engineered like no other…” or anything even close to it.

Yes, they’ve flirted with tepid themes over the years such as “Unlike any other”, but they couldn’t bring themselves to step-up and put their stake back in the ground, to commit everything they had to making Mercedes Mercedes-Benz again. Until now. Mercedes-Benz executives have finally, finally arrived at a new rallying cry. And it is…

Das Beste oder nichts.

Translation? “The Best or nothing.”

It is the mantra that Gottleib Daimler – the founder of Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1890 and developer (with his design partner Wilhelm Maybach) of the modern gasoline engine five years earlier - forged his pioneering motor company around.

The Best or nothing.

It’s interesting, but early on in my ad career I posted the exact phrase on my office wall after reading about Gottlieb Daimler, and I took it with me to each new job from then on.

To me it meant making a commitment to being and doing The Best. To be uncompromising and unwavering in the pursuit of excellence, no matter the sacrifices needed or the effort required. It served me well and it still resonates with me to this day.

“The Best or nothing” says it all.

If Mercedes-Benz commits to its founder’s mantra with everything they have, they have a real shot at gaining their mojo back. But in order to do so they’ll have to keep the weasels and the naysayers in check. That means the hordes entrenched deep in the Mercedes-Benz bureaucracy – the ones only concerned with maintaining the status quo - will have to be neutered or eliminated altogether.

And then they’ll have to unleash the True Believers so that they can design, engineer and build the very best machines they possibly can, in order to do Gottlieb’s mantra justice.

If not, “The Best or nothing” will remain a catchy new marketing theme, and nothing more.

And that’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.

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